Forever Youthful
by Fearless Rider
Summary: Team Gai shall remain, forever youthful. Series of Team Gai drabbles and shorts. Contains family, friendship, adventure, humor, romance. and YOUTH.
1. Beginnings

**Forever Youthful**

Title: Beginnings

POV: Gai

Disclaimer: I still don't own Naruto. If I did this would all be in the manga.

Notes: Enjoy :P

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Gai had never really considered being a sensei, until he met Rock Lee. After that day, he was determined that he would be the one to train the boy. He went to the Third Hokage and a deal was made, Lee would be tested on his taijutsu alone. Gai would be his sensei. He would have three years to prove that you could become a ninja with no genjutsu or ninjutsu. It was to be an experiment, a test to see if they could make ninjas out of anyone.

Gai didn't care about the stipulations. The word of what was happening had gone out to all the jonin and many of them were laughing at him, but Gai blew them all off. He would make a splendid ninja out of Lee. He was determined. The power of youth would overcome their doubts!

When he saw who his team was to be, he frowned. Lee, of course. Neji Hyuuga and a girl with no clan, Tenten. According to the village, a failure, a genius, and a nobody.

Gai quickly decided didn't mind. He was going to turn them into the greatest team the village, the world, had ever seen. He was going to prove the village wrong. Really, it was a youthful mix!

But they weren't exactly helpful with that. Neji thought he was better than all of them. Tenten was insisting on learning medical ninjutsu and wasting her potential. Lee's progress was slower than Gai would have liked.

Some nights, after a particularly bad training session, he thought that maybe he had been wrong. After days when Neji beat Lee, again. After the time Tenten skewered the boys by accident in kunai training. After the run where Lee kept up with wearing weights, then passed out and didn't wake up until the next day.

Those were the times that he thought he was failing. That he wasn't cut out for this sensei thing. That they would have all been better off without him.

But then there were other days. Like when Lee mastered a new technique everyone said he wouldn't be able to. Or when Neji did something without his infernal smirk and there was a glimpse of who he might be under the layers of ice. The moment when Tenten decided that she would be a taijutsu expert, and proceeded to match the boys in sparring.

Those were the moments that made it all worth it and when Gai went home for the night he realized that he couldn't remember what life had been like without them.

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A/N: Following will be a series of Team Gai drabbles and short stories, not necessarily canon, and from different points of view. If you read, reviews are very appreciated!


	2. Fated

**Fated**

POV: Neji

Notes: Let me just announce this now, Forever Youthful will not be published in any linear manner and it will almost certainly veer into AU at one point or another. Apologies for the long wait, enjoy and if you like it (or if you have suggestions to make following chapters better) I'd love to see your reviews.

Thank you to Spockaholic and Mikan for their reviews!

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Everything was meant to be.

Everything happened for a reason.

Everything was fated.

So, Neji told himself, there was a reason he was stuck on this team with a blundering Sensei, an idiot with no talent, and a girl whose head was stuck in her daydreams. There was nothing he could do about it. Nothing at all. So he would have to grit his teeth and endure, because truly there was nothing else in this world for him. He could hardly leave the village with his Byakugan and there was no other path for him that would be even halfway honorable.

So he was trapped.

Coming back from long days of training, rubbing his temples from the headache Lee and Gai never failed to evoke, he reminded himself that this was life. This was meant to be.

Nothing was left up to chance.

Life was what it was.

You couldn't escape.

When Tenten attempted to master medical ninjutsu, even when the fish she was practicing on looked worse after than when she started, when Lee insisted he would be a ninja using taijutsu, even after Neji beat him into the ground yet again, he merely his eyes. They were children, not even worth his time. They were fighting against the inevitable. He didn't understand why they couldn't see it.

You couldn't change it.

It was what it was.

So why waste time and energy on such meaningless efforts?

Days turned into weeks, weeks into months, and months into one long year full of sweat and blood and in the case of his teammates and Sensei tears. Some things never did change. They were all still ridiculous. They all still clung to worthless, childish, _things_ like _dreams_ and _hope_. Things he had known didn't exist since he was four years old and his father was murdered.

Sometimes he caught Gai or Tenten watching him with expressions filled with pity. The nights he refused their invitations to team dinners or to play games or any other wasteful activity they proposed. Neji resolutely ignored them and told himself it meant nothing, they meant nothing and Neji Hyuuga needed no one's pity.

He was merely stuck with them, for a time.

And he would do his best to ignore their dreams and hopes and wishes, because you couldn't change your destiny.

After all, no matter what they wanted, some things were simply fated.


End file.
